“Then I said, I will not make mention of Him, nor speak any more in His name. But His word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.”
Jeremiah was called by God to confront the people of Judah with His word. They did not listen to him. In fact, they persecuted him for his troubles. For example, at one point they put him in a cistern where he sunk up to his knees in the mire. They eventually took him out of the cistern, but he still had to suffer the indignity of that treatment. This verse points out that Jeremiah was weary of being God’s spokesman. I want to look into this verse and see if we can get into Jeremiah’s feelings and motives. The verse begins, “Then I said, I will not make mention of Him, nor speak any more in His name.” This suggests to me that Jeremiah was tired of being different, of going against the grain of society. Perhaps Jeremiah desired at that moment to be like everyone else. One of the most difficult things that we encounter is struggling with being different from everyone else. We learn this young in life and do not completely shed it in adulthood. We can understand Jeremiah's motivation. Maybe at the point that this verse was written, Jeremiah just wanted to be left alone to live his life like he wanted. We preachers certainly deal with that feeling, and we are not alone. One of the problems in the ministry and in the laity is that the desire to conform to the society around us is awfully tempting and sometimes difficult to overcome. Jeremiah found that his desire to quit prophesying, and to melt into society, was impossible. What happened to make this possible? The word of God happened. Early in life, Jeremiah was given God’s word. God’s word was not just in Jeremiah’s mind and in his mouth, it was in Jeremiah’s heart. When the word of God is in our hearts, like Jeremiah we cannot let it go. For example, I believe that if a preacher can quit preaching, then he should. If God’s word is not in his heart, the preacher really has nothing to preach. You do not retire from sharing the word of God. I can’t imagine coming across a good text and not wanting to share it with people. I’m not bragging about my dedication, I’m simply telling you that the word of God in one’s heart cannot be denied. We find the basis of this impossibility in the words: “But His word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones.” Common sense tells us that a fire cannot be shut in and contained as long as it is burning. The word of God continued to burn in Jeremiah’s heart. Because of this “holy heart burn” we can learn a lot about Jeremiah’s dedication. Yes, he was weary of being made fun of, being persecuted, and having threats made on his life. Jeremiah was, after all, a human being with the desires of a human being. The reason for Jeremiah’s dedication was that the word of God was as much a part of his life as breathing and eating and drinking. Jeremiah had internalized the word of God and he had to tell the people that word. Finally, Jeremiah wrote: “I am weary of holding it in, indeed I cannot.” While Jeremiah might have been weary of being a joke to some and a threat to others, he would have been wearier of not sharing what God gave him to share. We need to ask ourselves if this would be true of us. Will we stand on the word of God when it is not popular to do so? If Jesus tarries, this question will take on more and more relevance in our lives, and we need to answer it to God’s satisfaction. What does the word of God mean to you? Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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